


Strategic Luck and Conflict Resolution

by HopelessPoemantic



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Annie-centric (sorta), F/M, It gets a bit emotional but it's mostly just cute :), Missing season 3 episode, Poker, Some not-so-subtle Jeff+Annie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28104135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopelessPoemantic/pseuds/HopelessPoemantic
Summary: Annie Edison is fed up with sharing her grades with the rest of the group, and several incidents later our study group is at odds. The tensions high, the stakes medium, the episode bottled- will the group survive this test of pure, determined willpower? Or will they crumble under the challenging weight of this semi-luck-based feud?Basically: The group plays poker.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51





	Strategic Luck and Conflict Resolution

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with another fic! You guys were all so sweet and encouraging about my first fic, and I'm so glad you all liked it. This one is a one shot episode I wrote because I desperately wanted to write about the group playing poker. It's set between 3.04 and 3.05. I originally planned on having just tiny hints of Jeff+Annie in it, but it ended up being pretty shippy, and I have no regrets because I love them so much :) I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Also, a HUGE THANKS to @jtwinger_09 on Instagram who helped me come up with the idea and half of the plot and then beta'd it for me!

It’s five minutes until midnight, and Greendale is empty, with six exceptions. Gathered around the table in Study Room F, those six exceptions sit, waiting with bated breaths. Two players, four observers. 

Tall stacks of poker chips sit in front of both players as they eye each other, neither of their faces showing anything other than pure, focused determination. The dealer reaches for the deck, placing the top card face down, and the second one face up next to four other cards placed likewise in the middle of the table.

The clock strikes midnight, and the lights flicker. These things might be completely unrelated, and one of them might even be the result of a school-wide electrical malfunction that would suck far too much money out of the school dance budget to fix, but both of them only add to the thick tension that can be felt by every person at that table, save the one that has been asleep for the past half hour. Everyone knows that there’s far more at stake here than just the chips on the table or what they represent. 

All eyes are glued to the card that has just been revealed. The nine of diamonds. One of the players glances at their hand. A king and a queen in diamonds and spades. 

_A straight_.

The player sets their cards back down and looks to their opponent. Not a single hint can be gleaned from either of their faces.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

For a moment, the player’s face remains blank. But slowly, a smirk begins to appear. Still holding their opponent’s stare, the player pushes their entire stack of chips to the middle of the table and then leans back in their chair.

“All in.”

_Two Weeks Earlier_

“Passed again!!! See, I told you that F wasn’t going to be a problem for us!” Troy looks at Jeff, considers offering him a fist bump, but instead decides to perform his handshake with Abed.

Jeff allows a tiny smile of satisfaction to creep over his face, “Splitting a grade really isn’t bad. We do a seventh of the work and still get all the credit for it. I’m liking this.”

At this, Annie frowns deeply, “Okay, guys, I’ve given you long enough to be excited about passing, but we’re in trouble. I’ve calculated it out, and if we get one more C then it will be statistically impossible for us to achieve anything higher than a B minus in this class, so we really need to pick it up!”

“An-nie,” comes Shirley’s voice in its sweetest tone, “we’ve tried our best, and that’s the most you can ask of us, so I think you should just-“

“No, Shirley. I won’t just let it be. You’ve got me as a lab partner, and I’m not letting you all drag down my grades and ruin my semester!”

“Annie, have you considered that, conversely, you’ve got _us_ as lab partners, and that you might be ruining _our_ semester by sending us on a wild chase after a grade we don’t even want?” Jeff raises a questioning eyebrow as he speaks.

“A grade you don’t want, or a grade you can’t get? I’d really like to see you _try_ to get a decent grade for once!”

“Sorry, Annie, I stopped falling for that motivation crap when I realized that I’m already cooler than everyone else and that I don’t need to win something to prove it.”

“Hmm, a certain wannabe politician from last year seemed to tell me differently.” Annie gives Jeff her most innocent expression, and his face darkens.

“Well I don’t know, Annie,” he growls, his voice soaked in sarcasm, “maybe not all of us are cute little super-geniuses like you who get turned on by the prospect of being valedictorian.”

Annie emits a high pitched gasp, “Well maybe not all of _us_ would rather sit around and look pretty than actually succeed! Just because you want to barely scrape by on no effort doesn't mean I shouldn’t care about my education!” 

At that, Annie hastily grabs her backpack from the table where she’d set it down and marches out of the room as the group protests behind her. 

* * * * *

Professor Kane had actually been having a relatively calm office period before he heard a loud rapping on the door. Sighing deeply, and bracing himself for the most absurd situation possible, he sets down the book he was reading and says, “It’s unlocked.”

When the door opens, a very upset Annie Edison is standing at the entrance to his office.

“Miss Edison, what can-”

“Professor, there’s been an issue with our group’s grades that I’d like to try to resolve with you,” before Professor Kane can finish his sentence Annie already has a head of steam and is barreling ahead with her complaint.

“While I fully understand your decision to grade us all collectively, I think you should consider what effect it might be having on your students. Some of us in the group are very… have a natural affinity for schoolwork, and are very hard workers. And there are also some in the group whose natural tendency is to avoid work. And it forces the rest of us, people like me,” she gives him a small smile and a bashful shrug, “to pick up the slack and do extra work. And oftentimes that work is of a very high quality, and it can be very discouraging when that quality is damaged by the students who don’t have an interest in making sure their work is good. So really, your system is causing some of us to avoid learning anything, and forcing the ones of us who _do_ learn to-“

“Okay okay, I get it!” Professor Kane puts his hands up in a calming gesture, “You’re upset that the group is bringing your grades down, yes?”

“Well… yes! You read my section of the lab report. I included research on local plant health. I diagnosed our flower with two different diseases! The Colorado Department of Agriculture literally contacted me to ask for my research! And you gave me a C!”

“Plus,” Professor Kane says quietly, with a little bit of guilt in his voice.

“That doesn't help!”

“Well I can’t give you your individual grades back, I’m sorry. You all seem to have no trouble ganging up on the other students in this class, so you need to deal with the consequences.”

“Professor, I know everyone treated Todd very harshly, and I tried to stop-”

“Annie, please, I heard you making fun of him afterward. Don’t try that on me.” 

Annie’s face scrunches up in a mixture of frustration and determination as she scrambles for something to say, “Professor!” She stomps her foot on the ground, “I discovered an entire plant epidemic!” 

Professor Kane rubs the bridge of his nose, “Fine! Fine, I’ll figure something out. But please don’t throw a tantrum in my office. I heard what happened with Professor Cligoris, and I won’t tolerate that in my class. This entire situation is already childish enough.”

The moment the word “fine” came out of his mouth, Annie suddenly jumped slightly. Smiling broadly, she lets out a squeak of excitement when he finishes speaking, “Eeee yes! Thank you so much, Professor! You have no idea how much I appreciate this!” And with another couple of bounces, she exits the office, shutting the door behind her.

_The Next Day_

“Can I see you seven in my office?” 

Annie looks around to see if any of the group has an idea what’s going on, but all of them look nervous and unsure.

“Uh… okay?” Jeff says uneasily. 

The group follows Professor Kane to his office as the rest of the class files out, and they crowd into his doorway, arranged by height so that Annie stands in the front, just barely inside the room. 

“Okay, why do you guys do this?”

The group looks amongst themselves for an explanation, but everyone appears confused.

“What did we do?” Annie pipes up.

“This. You guys all squeeze into the doorway like there’s some invisible wall. I have two chairs in here and the rest of you could easily fit inside.”

The group stands motionless for a moment until Jeff gives Abed a push forward, causing him to trip toward Annie, eliciting a squeak from her as everyone stumbles into the room. After everyone recovers their balance and Britta recovers a file full of papers that she knocked off the desk, Annie and Shirley both sit down.

“Okay, so I’ve decided that I’m going to be making some changes to your grading system. Miss Edison informed me of some… flaws in the way you’re currently being graded.”

Annie watches every head in the group swivel toward her. She glances up at Jeff, who looks mildly hurt.

“You seriously went and asked for different lab partners!” Jeff’s voice gets louder than is fitting for the tiny room.

“We just rocked that last test! Abed and I wrote a whole backstory for our flower!” Troy’s glare fades as he looks over to Abed and initiates their handshake, but the moment he’s finished he crosses his arms and resumes glaring at Annie, “You won’t get that with any other lab partner I can promise you that.”

“About that,” Professor Kane has yet another very confused look on his face, “The assignment only called for a description of what you saw when you dissected the daffodil.”

“I saw more than that. I saw a story, a tragic past.” Abed says as he stares down Professor Kane. Troy nods silently alongside him.

Professor Kane’s mouth is slightly open as he stares at Abed for about five straight seconds, until he turns back towards Annie.

“Okay so… back to the reason I brought you in here. I’ve decided that while I’m going to continue to grade you all as one group, I’ll give the top individual performers on your assignments a way to earn credit themselves.” he reaches down behind his desk for a moment, and pulls out a cheap-looking briefcase. “You guys want to act like you’re kids, I’m gonna treat you that way.” He opens the briefcase, revealing a large set of poker chips. “I’m going to give out these tokens to whoever does the best work. They’re not going to be worth a ton of points, just a small portion of your grade, but hopefully you can stop complaining if I make you feel special by handing these out to you.” He rolls his eyes after this last sentence.

Annie, satisfied with the arrangement, looks to gauge the group’s reaction. Her eyes settle on Jeff, who looks unconvinced.

“There’s no way I’m doing this,” Jeff shakes his head, “We aren’t preschoolers. Let’s just suck it up and take one grade for all of us.”

Annie panics and jumps out of her seat, “No!”

When Jeff looks at her, startled, she wills her eyes to appear as large as possible and looks up at him, “Jeeefffff, please! It’s only a small part of our grade, and this I won’t end up being upset with all of you all the time!”

Jeff sighs deeply, and looks up at the ceiling, “Fine. Just please call them something other than tokens.”

_Three Days Later_

Remarkably, the group reacted very well to Professor Kane’s plan. The first time he gave out tokens, Annie yelped with excitement, even though they amounted to only a small percentage of her grade. The day after that, the rest of the group had apparently picked up their game, because the assignment they’d submitted earned them an A. 

So when Professor Kane hears another knock on his office door and finds Troy and Abed standing outside of it, he fears the worst, believing that the group has found some way to ruin the system. 

“Guys, if you are all having another fight I’m just going to make-”

“No, no, we’re not!” Troy interjects.

“We were wondering if you would let us split our tokens evenly between Troy and I.”

“Yeah, we pretty much work on our sections together anyway.”

Professor Kane looks between them, trying to think as far ahead as he can to make sure nothing can go wrong, “Sure, fine. But I’m not gonna keep track of whatever you guys do, so you’ll have to handle all that yourselves, okay?”

“Yesss,” Troy and Abed say simultaneously as they perform their handshake. 

“Also, we’re dissecting worms tomorrow, and I just want to make sure you know that it’s just a visual lab report, right? You just need to describe the anatomy of the worm, that’s it, okay?”

An awkward silence ensues in which Troy and Abed look first to each other, and then to Professor Kane. Abed starts to very slowly nod his head while holding eye contact, and Troy quietly hums, “mmhm,” and then both of them quickly turn and exit.

“That wasn’t at all convincing! You gave me a ten page script last week! I just wanted three paragraphs!”

_Four Days Later_

As much as Annie has enjoyed being given the opportunity to earn some credit for her work, something is off. She still feels the familiar rush whenever she receives the most tokens, although Troy and Abed have been getting more than her recently since they’d decided to work together, but she isn’t feeling happy. Yesterday, she’d gone to walk next to Jeff to their shared political science class as they usually did, but he’d claimed to have forgotten something in the study room and left the moment she’d caught up to him. For the rest of the day, nothing felt right, and she thought it seemed like Jeff was intentionally ignoring her.

So today, she’s decided to fix it herself. 

“Hey, Jeff, wait up a second!” Annie calls after him as everyone leaves the study room for the day. Shirley looks over her shoulder with a suspicious glare and sees Pierce lean over to whisper something to Jeff, who pushes him away and turns around. Annie silences whatever Shirley might’ve been about to say with a very stern look, and then turns to Jeff.

“Hey, um… it feels like maybe you’ve been upset about-“

“Okay nope, if this is what this is about I’m out. I don’t do ‘we need to talk’,” Jeff gets up to leave, and in a panic, Annie grabs his hand. Jeff’s eyes widen slightly, but he stops moving.

“Please, Jeff! I really don’t want you to be upset with me! Is this about the token thing?”

At this Jeff rolls his eyes, “I thought we agreed to just call them points.”

Annie returns the eye-roll, “They can’t be called points, Jeff. They are _worth_ points, but the physical object is clearly a token.”

“Ugh, it makes it sound like we’re at Chuck E. Cheese’s. I hate it.”

Annie points her finger at him in admonishment, “Stop trying to change the subject! Tell me what’s going on!”

Jeff sighs, “I don’t know, I guess it just made things weird! We all work separately, and we do so much studying that no one really talks to each other now.”

“Well would you look at that, is that poor Jeffrey Winger actually liking his friends?” The moment she says it and sees the wince on Jeff’s face, she winces along with him and wishes she hadn’t said it.

“I’m sorry… that was mean. I know you like us even if you pretend not to.” She tries to save the situation by giving Jeff the softest smile she can manage, and the moment he looks back to her face he starts to smile a bit as well.

“It’s fine, I don’t care that much. It’s just different.” He starts to get up and leave again.

“Wait! What if...what if we worked on the next assignment together?”

Jeff stops for the second time and looks at her quizzically, “I thought we kind of all agreed to work separately?”

“Well… yeah, but I can work with you if I want!”

“Wouldn’t that be unfair to everyone else since they don’t get your help?”

“We don’t have to tell anybody! We can work after Poly Sci! No one is really around then.”

Jeff smiles almost imperceptibly, “That actually sounds kinda nice.” The smile grows a bit more as he looks into Annie’s eyes, and her breath shortens slightly. 

But then Jeff clears his throat and looks away, “Yeah I could, uh… I could really use the grade bump. Cool. Okay, uh, see you after class then?”

Annie’s shoulders drop just a little bit when Jeff starts to get up, but she looks up at him, still smiling albeit slightly less intensely, “See you then!”

_Five Days Later_

Annie wouldn’t say that things went “smoothly” per se over the next five days, but they did get better. Jeff stopped avoiding her, and since they’ve worked together on the last few assignments, they’ve each gained quite a few tokens. A few times Britta has almost discovered that Jeff was getting Annie’s help, but so far the most anyone has is their suspicions. 

Two days ago, Pierce walked into the study room with what Annie was certain was a number of tokens far greater than what he’d earned so far. When Troy walked in dressed in what looked like one of Jeff’s expensive suits, she thought she understood.

Annie has still consistently been getting a high number of tokens, and while that satisfies her, she can’t deny that something about the group’s dynamic has shifted. There’s less chatting, far more snapping at each other, and an abnormal amount of studying. 

Now, with a group presentation due the following day, the group is scattered about the study room preparing for it. Troy and Abed are seated on the couch in the far corner studying together, having already agreed to split the tokens between the two of them. Shirley is seated opposite them on the remaining couch. Annie, Jeff, and Britta are at the table, while Pierce has set up two chairs in the corner of the room nearest the back door and is resting his legs on one while he studies. 

“What do you guys think of this analogy for my presentation: DNA is like… uh…” Britta looks down and checks her notes, “It’s like a sandwich. And there are different ingredients, but like… you couldn’t put mustard and peanut butter together, but they both work in a sandwich… and like, if you had DNA there’s different things that go together but some of them can’t?” She looks around the room for input, but gets no response.

“Oh come on people, are we really just gonna sit and ignore each other? We’re a study group! We might as well be studying at home!”

“Shh, I’m trying to study, Britta,” Shirley hushes from the couch. 

The room sits in silence for another minute or so, until Annie peeks at Jeff’s notes out of the corner of her eye. 

“I think it might be simpler if you just said, ‘DNA’ instead of the whole phrase every time. You really only need to say it once,” she looks at him and smiles gently.

“That… makes sense, yep,” Jeff returns her smile. 

Britta looks back and forth between the two of them with a look of disbelief on her face, “Seriously? You’re just going to ignore me asking a question, but then you’ll help Jeff just because?”

“Cool it, Britta, you can barely call that helping. She gave me abbreviation advice.”

“No, I will not cool it! Partially because you are not allowed to tell me to cool it, and partially because I am righteously angry. You guys are not allowed to help each other but then ignore everyone else! You’re just trying to swoop in on your best behaviour and steal all the tokens!”

“Um, that’s called _every_ class, Britta. We’re trying to get good grades, but I get why you wouldn’t understand that,” Annie rolls her eyes at Britta, and at this point their volume has distracted the rest of the group.

“No, I will not allow this to happen. You guys are ruining our system!”

“Oh _now_ you think our system is getting ruined, but it was totally fine when you quoted my lab report almost word for word last week?” Shirley stands up and walks toward Britta.

“That was _public_ information Shirley! Who made you the keeper of all knowledge?”

“You, apparently, when you decided that we couldn’t share notes after I missed class on Thursday!”

“Guys, call down,” Jeff stands up as well, “Our system is not getting ruined. We just need to get back to studying and stop yelling at each other.”

“Oh that’s easy for you to say when you’re just using Annie’s notes!” Pierce scoffs.

“He is not!” Annie protests.

Abed stands up too, “I saw you and Jeff walking into an empty math classroom after your political science class yesterday, so either you’re helping him with his homework, or your relationship has finally progressed to another level and you have something to tell us.”

Annie and Jeff quickly look at each other, and then turn back to the group, “No!” they both shout at once. 

“Fine! I’m helping him study! But Troy and Abed are helping each other, so it shouldn’t matter!”

“That’s different,” Abed says, “We have roughly similar skill levels when it comes to biology, so our working together doesn’t dramatically alter the balance of the group. You working with Jeff gives him an unfair advantage,” he raises his eyebrows and gives Annie a challenging look. 

“And if you thought it was totally fine, why didn’t you just tell everyone about it!” Troy injects himself into the conversation.

“Because we didn’t want all _this_ happening!” Jeff’s voice rises to something nearing a yell.

“Well if Annie is going to help you, I think she should help all of us,” Pierce crosses his arms and changes positions so his feet are no longer resting on another chair. 

“Pierce, no one is going to help you when you’ve been buying tokens off of Troy,” when she says Troy’s name, Britta gives him an accusatory glare. 

“We haven’t done anything wrong! We asked Professor Kane and he said it was okay!”

“Oh, so that’s okay but it’s not okay for me to help Jeff?” Annie’s yelling now.

“Jeff is an idiot!” Britta yells, “So you helping him throws everything off!”

“But stealing my homework when I get the second best grades in the class doesn’t alter anyyy balances, does it?” Shirley gets uncomfortably close to Britta.

“Everybody shut up!” Jeff is standing on a chair, and when he speaks, everyone is silent. “Look at yourselves? Look at what you’re arguing over? These…” he grimaces, “tokens… barely add up to anything when it comes to our final grade. But all of you are willing to rip apart the study group for that tiny little percentage, aren’t you? Well I have news for you: it isn’t worth it. I’ve gone through more than two years learning that the only thing at Greendale that’s worthwhile are the people. And if we don’t have that… what do we have? We have a table with some axe dents in it, we have five school dances that seem to be getting progressively more provocative, and we have the charred remains of a once below-average cafeteria. And that is not a school I want to go to. That’s not a world I want to live in. So if it takes losing out on a few extra points on tomorrow’s presentation to keep those people in my life,” his eyes rest on Annie as he says this, “I’ll happily make that trade. And you all should too.”

The group murmurs in affirmation, and Shirley says, “Well… then I suppose we should just get this resolved so we can go back to being friends.”

The group nods again.

“Well… if that’s the case I’m just going to leave now,” Annie starts backing toward the door and gives the group an awkward smile, “I think we can all agree that I deserve all the tokens I have, so I don’t think there’s any need for me to be here while you all figure this out.”

“You wait just a minute there, missy, I don’t think we _can_ all agree to that. If I have to give up some of my tokens, you do too.”

“Excuse me! I have the best grades in this entire group! If I have the most tokens it’s because I earned them!”

“Hey, we’ve all been using each other’s material all the time; you can’t say that you got your tokens _all_ on your own,” Jeff narrows his eyes at her.

“Wha- Jeff! I’m the entire reason you have any tokens at all!”

“Sure, you helped me, but I’m the one who taught you better presentation skills in the first place,” the rest of the group voices their agreement as Jeff speaks, “You would never have gotten an A on that verbal essay without my help.”

“This is ridiculous! I am obviously the most deserving here, and you guys are just trying to ride my hard work to the top! I’m leaving!” Annie makes for the door, but Jeff jumps in front of her to block it.

“No! No one is leaving until we figure this out!” Abed starts to open his mouth, but Jeff whips around, “And shut up, Abed! The _last_ thing we need right now is you complaining about some God-damned bottle episode.”  
  


“Don’t talk to him like that!” Troy jumps in front of Abed and glares at Jeff, “What is even happening! How do all of us believe that no one deserves their tokens! We’re going to end up arguing forever until someone just steals all the tokens and runs!”

“If a single one of you tries to even _touch_ any of my tokens I will punch you in the face. I’ve done it before, and I can do it again!” Annie’s voice rises to a frenzied pitch, and she looks around the room with a threatening expression on her face. 

“You know in my day, we fought for our tokens with our fists,” Pierce says casually, somehow the only one in the room who isn’t on the verge of screaming.

“You fought for tokens?” Troy gives him a confused look.

“Wait… that’s actually not a bad idea,” Jeff says.

Everyone, including Pierce, looks at Jeff and yells, “What!?”

Jeff, startled out of his train of thought, looks around the room, “No I didn’t mean like that! Not like, actually fighting. But what if we had some sort of competition, that we can all agree on, that will determine who gets what tokens.”

Jeff holds up one of his tokens, a red poker chip, and eyes it. The group stares along with him, starting to get the picture.

Abed looks around the room, seemingly confused, “Okay I don’t know if I’m reading this correctly, but if you guys are considering playing poker, I want you to first consider what it’s going to be like to have to face _me_ in poker. _Me_. I don’t think any of you want to go down that road.”

“Wanna bet?” Pierce narrows his eyes at Abed, and Abed stares at him blankly in response.

“No. I don’t want to bet. That’s exactly what I’m saying I don’t want to do. Can’t we just divy up the tokens evenly amongst ourselves and go back to normal? That’s what Troy and I do.”

“Yeah, you’re just saying that because you want access to all my tokens,” Annie accuses,  
“Not gonna happen. I’d rather play poker!”

“Maybe poker isn’t such a bad idea?” says Britta, “If we all agree on it, we can figure this out without having to argue anymore?”

Abed sighs deeply, “Fine. But you can’t say that I didn’t warn you.”

The group looks between each other for another few seconds to make sure everyone is on board, and then they all start to move toward the study table.

_The Game Begins_

The rules were simple. Standard, Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. Abed would be the dealer. Everyone would begin with whatever number of tokens they currently possessed. They’d play until everyone either quit or ran out of tokens. And the results were final; once the game was over, no one was allowed to dispute the results. 

When Annie sees her hand is made up of a 3 and a 9 in spades and clubs, she folds along with Britta when the bid gets to her. Some mild bidding ensues until only Jeff and Troy remain in. 

When Abed turns over the river, Troy, with a giant smile on his face, pushes every single one of his chips into the center of the table, and, with as much drama as he can muster, says, “All… in.” He leans back in his chair, still grinning broadly, and looks around the table for approval. 

“That was pretty awesome. Man, I’ve always wanted to say that,” he turns to Abed and goes for their handshake. Abed sighs and reluctantly participates. 

Jeff, who’s been looking confusedly at Troy, speaks after a few seconds, “You… you aren’t supposed to just… nevermind. All in. Three kings.”

“Two Kings,” Troy says, putting his arms behind his head and smiling victoriously. 

“That’s… literally what’s on the table. Two Kings. You went all in with nothing in your hand?”

“Yeah but it was the coolest thing you’ve ever seen! For just a second there I was black James Bond!” He looks wistfully off into the distance as if he’s actually watching the movie on the study room door. 

Jeff and Abed sigh at the same time, but Abed proceeds to gather up the cards as Jeff gathers up his tokens. 

During the next hand, when Abed reveals the turn, Annie hears a slight squeak come from Britta’s direction, and by the look of it, Abed and Jeff do as well. Annie had decided early on to pay little mind to Britta’s reactions, because they’d so far been coming almost at random. When the bid comes to Britta, she pushes her remaining chips to the center. Annie can’t tell what Abed’s reaction is, but Jeff quickly folds. 

Annie looks closely at Britta. She does seem genuinely confident… but Britta’s confidence in something is usually a negative indicator. Annie thinks for a moment, considering her options, and then says, “Call,” and then turning to smirk at Jeff.

When it comes back to Abed, he stares down Britta in a similar manner to Annie, and then sets his cards down.

“Fold.” As Abed says it, Annie realizes she’s made a mistake. There’s no way she can read Britta better than Abed can.

“Ha! Sorry, Annie, but it looks like you _are_ going to be leaving early!” Britta lays down a King of clubs and a four of hearts, “Flush baby!”

Immediately Jeff bursts out laughing so hard that it almost sounds like a snort, causing Britta to jump in surprise and look over at him.

“Britta,” Annie says in her softest yet most condescending voice, “You don’t have a flush. And you also don’t have any more tokens,” Annie smiles at her with sarcastic pity.

“Um, yes I do. Look, One heart, one club, one diamond, and one spade,” she points at the cards as she says them, “Flush.”

Jeff whips out his phone, “I’m sorry, but I have to capture the moment you find out.”

“A flush is when you have a hand that is made up of five cards of the same suit. The hand you’ve just mentioned is non-existent,” Abed helpfully points out.

The sound of a photo being taken comes from Jeff’s phone. “This is better than I could have ever imagined,” he marvels, studying the photograph. 

“Well I’m sorry that I don’t constantly waste my money on schemes devised by the wealthy instead of donating to charity!”

“Definitely, yes. The reason you don’t have money is because you give it all to charity. I know multiple charities that you _qualify_ for; I don’t think you’ve ever given them anything.”

“Excuse me, I personally donated _ten thousand dollars_ to-“

The entire table groans.

Britta throws her hands up in exasperation, “Fine, here you go, Annie.” She shoves her tokens in Annie’s direction, and most of them fly off the table as Annie gasps shrilly. Britta slumps back into her chair and glares around the table.

The next few hands pass by without incident, although Troy’s excitement has now worn off and it appears as though he’s now realized the consequences of his actions, and Britta’s anger has worn off as she’s started to become engrossed in the game before her. When Jeff wins another hand, and turns to shoot a smug smile in Annie’s direction, and she sticks her tongue out at him.

Suddenly, Britta sits bolt upright. 

“Shirley… where are all your tokens?”

The group turns to look at Shirley, who has what appears to be a drastically diminished pile in front of her. Slowly, their heads turn to Pierce, who’s pile seems to have doubled in size.

Annie gasps, “Shirley! What did you do!”

Shirley holds her head high, “I sold them to Pierce.” The group begins to protest, but Shirley silences them by smacking the table.

“I don’t want to hear a single _peep_ from any of you! I am going to give my kids a good vacation this year! Just because you all happen to care more about showing off in biology class than you do about your relationships doesn’t mean I have to!”

The group is silent, having been thoroughly scolded.

“That being said, I still have some tokens left, and I plan to beat your asses, so let’s get this moving.”

Several hands later, little has changed except that Pierce has lost a significant portion of his pile to Jeff. On the next hand, Annie is feeling good. Abed has just revealed the turn, and Annie has two pairs. She’s successfully goaded Jeff and Pierce, who both are playing tentatively, into putting substantial bids on the table.

When Abed turns over the next card, and the bid goes to Jeff, he leans back in his chair and looks at Annie. She returns the intensity of the look, looking for any hint as to what’s going on, but before she can think any further, his lips turn up into a slight grin. He leans forward and pushes almost all of his tokens to the middle. 

“Don’t do something you’ll regret, Annie. This is all in for you,” his grin grows into a smirk.

Annie doesn’t respond. She studies him carefully, but is unable to see beyond his outer smugness. She looks from her hand to the cards on the table in a panic. Jeff could easily have a straight now. She’s already put about half of her tokens in the pot, and she really can’t afford to fold now. But the thought of going all in without any hint to go off of terrifies her. The idea that with a single bet she could be walking into class the next day with everything she’d worked for stripped away from her… even though it’s only a few percentage points, it hurts some deep part of her that she doesn’t want to explore.

Without warning, Annie bursts into tears. It’s so sudden that everyone at the table jumps back slightly, looking at her in confusion and concern.

“You guyssss,” the expression on her face is one of agony, “I can’t do this-“ her speech is interrupted by a loud sob. “I really need these grades!” She turns her gaze on Jeff, her eyes as large as he’s ever seen them, eyelids fluttering ever so slightly, “Please, Jeff! If you care about me at all you’d help me!”

“Annie,” Jeff’s face looks almost equally agonized, “I… I don’t want you to be hurt, I’m sorry! We agreed on the rules already! There’s nothing I can do about it! Pleae- no don’t cry that’s not- ah-“ as he tries to comfort her his expression becomes more and more pained.

“Jeff I _know_ you care about me! You wouldn’t jeopardize our relationship over something like this, would you?” she leans over the table toward him, “I thought we had something special between us!” 

The rest of the group’s eyes widen as they swivel to Jeff to see how he’ll react. Jeff looks like he’s just been forced to kill a kitten, and he tries to speak, “Annie, please don’t do this I… I don’t want to hurt our relationship, obviously! This doesn’t have to be this big a deal-“

It’s a big deal to me!” Annie starts crying audibly again, “And it’s even worse that it’s just by-“ she stops to sob loudly, “by _chance!_ You just happened to get a straight and I can’t even help it! I’m just gonna lose everything because of some stupid shuffle!” She looks up at Jeff again to see him in at least as much distress as she is.

“Annie, you- that’s not even my hand! But even if I did ha-” Jeff stops, leaving his mouth hanging open on the uncompleted word. Annie’s eyes widen, and immediately her expression of sadness becomes a maniacal grin as she leaps to her feet.

“Ha! I knew it! I knew you couldn’t be telling the truth! Suck on this Winger! I call! All in! Looks like someone was just too much of a sucker! You. Have. Been. Played! Say goodbye to all those tokens, bitch!” She begins dancing around his chair.

“Annie!” Shirley looks at her in horror, “You were faking!? How could you do that to poor Jeffrey!”

Jeff is still sitting in the exact same position, mouth slightly open, looking at the wall.

“Oh I wouldn’t expect you to understand Shirley. You just don’t have that killer instinct needed to win games like this, much less to outscore me in class.”

Shirley’s gaze hardens, “Well then. If that’s what it’s going to take to win this game, I’m leaving,” she stands up. “You can have the few tokens I’ve got left. I’m proud I’ve made it this far, and I don’t want any part in the craziness that’s happening here. I’m going to go home to my kids. Good. Night.”

By the time Shirley has exited the building, Jeff has finally recovered enough to look at Annie.

“Annie… that...” he shakes his head squinting at her as if trying to read distant writing, “I…” he closes his eyes for a moment, and when he looks at her again his expression has darkened, “Alright then. You win this hand.” He lays his cards face up on the table and his eyes narrow into a glare.

Three rounds and no significant wins later, Annie is starting to think that this game might not end until their class the next day begins. As she checks the clock to see that they’re already nearing midnight, the silence at the table is broken by Abed.

“Pierce’s tell: Sharp exhale out of the nostrils and a straightening of posture; he has a flush; he isn’t bluffing. Everyone fold,” He says it at the speed of someone reading it off of a piece of paper, and with that, he lays his cards down.

Pierce chokes on air for a second and looks over to Abed, wide-eyed, “He’s cheating! He’s counting cards!”

Abed shakes his head, “That isn’t at all what I’m doing. This game has gone on long enough, and people are getting hurt, so I’m just going to end it. I know all of your tics and tells and mannerisms; I’m not cheating at all.”

Jeff and Annie both look at each other, looking just as frightened as Pierce, and they both fold at once.

Pierce looks around the table angrily, seemingly looking for someone to back him up, but seeing that no one is on his side, he throws his cards into the middle with a huff as Abed reshuffles.

The very next hand, “Jeff’s tell: tensing of the torso muscles and glancing at the clock; Jeff was likely hoping for a higher pair, but has nothing better than a pair of threes. He’s bluffing at this point; you should call, Annie.”

“Pierce’s tell: repeated attempts to swallow; Pierce has nothing good in his hand.”

“Pierce’s tell: same thing again, Pierce has a bad hand.”

The next hand, Pierce is out of the game.

“Annie’s tell: a decrease in the frequency of blinks and a focused gaze. Annie is bluffing, you should call Jeff.”

Annie does everything in her power to keep her face from reacting as Jeff pushes all of his few remaining tokens into the middle. Jeff glares as he does so, looking uncertain but still determined. He lays his cards down.

“Pair of kings.”

Annie quietly releases a held breath and lays her cards down, “Three of a kind.”

Jeff looks at the cards for a moment, and then wheels on Abed, “What the hell was that, Abed? I thought you were supposed to know us all perfectly? You just had to screw up when it was my turn, huh?”

Abed shrugs, “I’m trying to end this game, Jeff. I’ll do whatever I need to do.”

Jeff’s eyes widen, “You did that on purpose?!”

“You chose to trust me, your opponent. You should’ve considered that we might have different interests here. This is entirely your fault. If you’ll excuse us, we have a game to finish,” he turns to look at Annie, “This is going to be interesting. We have an identical number of tokens.”

Annie looks down at her pile and sees that it perfectly matches Abed’s, “Oh. We do.”

Abed continues to stare at her, “This feels like an absurd and unlikely event that could only happen in some sort of orchestrated plot. Like we’re being set up for a climax.”

Annie is about to respond when the lights flicker off for two seconds. Jeff groans, “The lights want you to shut up Abed.”

As Abed begins dealing, Annie looks out the window. It’s pitch black outside. The clock nearly reads midnight. They can’t have another F because they argued all night. This needs to end. 

Abed finishes dealing. Annie reaches for her cards, and as she does, Abed turns to stare at her. Suddenly, she becomes hyper-aware of every small movement she’s making, terrified that any one of them could be the tell Abed is looking for. She wills her face to remain as neutral as possible, and picks up her cards. 

A king of diamonds and a queen of spades. Annie almost breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of such a good starting hand, but stops herself just in time. Abed glances down at his cards, and then continues to stare blankly at Annie. She tries to catch any movement at all in his face, but it might as well be a photograph. She doesn’t take her eyes off of him until he reaches to deal out the flop. As the cards are revealed, she hears light gasps from Jeff, Britta, and Troy, and a snore from Pierce’s direction. A ten and a three in diamonds, and a jack of clubs. All she needs is a nine or an Ace and she has a straight. 

In her pondering, Annie realizes she’s lost track of what her face may be doing. She jolts upright and looks back at Abed, who cocks his head slightly in response to the sudden movement. 

The next card is laid face up. It’s another ten, this time in hearts. This means Abed could theoretically have a full house. His bid is still tentative so she doubts it, although it’s impossible for her to tell whether Abed is just trying to lure her in. 

Before the next card is dealt, Abed stops and looks at Annie again. But it doesn’t have the same intensity that she’s been seeing for most of the game. It’s far more searching, more curious than it is aggressive. Afraid to give anything away, Annie doesn’t break the stare, and waits until Abed blinks and turns his head sharply toward the deck. 

The clock strikes midnight, and the lights flicker again. Annie sees both Jeff and Troy jump slightly out of the corner of her eye, and if she weren’t so focused on the game she might have laughed at their reactions. But now, she has nothing on her mind but winning. 

Abed reaches for the last card and turns it over.

All eyes are glued to it. The nine of diamonds. Annie glances back down at her hand to assure herself of what she has. 

A straight.

It’s extremely unlikely, but Abed could have either a flush or a full house. But she’s willing to take that risk. 

Annie sets her cards back down and looks Abed dead in the eye. Not a single hint can be gleaned from either of their faces. 

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Abed says.

Annie draws it out. She stares at him, her face empty of any expression. Then, slowly, she allows a smirk to appear. Still holding Abed’s stare, Annie pushes her entire stack of chips to the middle of the table and then leans back in her chair.

“All in.”

Abed looks down at his cards for the first time since he picked them up.

“I asked you a question, Annie.”

Annie looks at him in confusion, “I’m winning this game Abed. I know how to calculate too. You don’t have anything better than me.” 

Abed doesn’t break their gaze, “Why?”

Annie leans back sharply, surprised at his question, “What do you mean why?”

“Why are you so desperate to win this?”

Annie clenches her jaw, “Maybe it’s because I’m tired of you all acting like you’re entitled to my work! You guys take it for granted that I will just let you piggy-back off of my hard work every single time we do anything!”

Abed doesn’t react at all, “Is that really why, Annie?”

“Yes!” Annie yells indignantly, hitting the table lightly with both hands.

Abed’s eyes narrow, “Is that really it? Or are you just afraid that if you don’t get all the gold stars, you’re not going to be important any more? That if someone other than you gets recognition, you won’t be needed or cared about?”

Annie opens her mouth as if to gasp, but doesn’t make a sound.

Abed leans forward, his voice becoming harsh, “You just _have_ to make sure that whatever happens, everyone knows _you’re_ the one who’s responsible for our success. Because if you aren’t responsible, what does that make you? Nothing. Just the cute brunette who sits next to Jeff Winger in class every day, nothing more.”

Annie doesn’t notice that she’s crying until she feels a tear slip down her cheek and into her lap. 

“I know what’s going to happen here. I know what cards are in your hand, and I know that you think you’re going to win it all right now. And you might. And if you do, you’ll walk into class with what you think you deserve. You’ll go on believing that you still have value because you have recognition. But what if you lose? Then what happens Annie? Because you know that’s a possibility here. You know you might walk out of here with absolutely nothing and be on the same level as Pierce. What will happen to you when you get up in class and Professor Kane can’t tell you and Britta apart?”

Annie throws her pen at Abed, and it bounces harmlessly off of his arm, “Stop it!”

Annie had forgotten the rest of the group was even in the room until Jeff says firmly, “Abed, I think that’s enough.”

Abed shakes his head, “You’re missing the point, Annie.” His voice and eyes soften now, and it’s enough that Annie can look back up at him through tear-filled eyes.  
  


“The point is that you aren’t just a good grade in a tight sweater. You’re Annie. And while it’s true that Jeff wouldn’t have passed half of his classes without you, I can promise he’d still be giving you lingering glances across the table even if you weren’t a good student. We like you, and it doesn’t have anything to do with how well you score on tests. And if you go through with this hand, you’ll never get to prove that to yourself.

“So Annie, I’m going to give you a choice here. You can play out this hand, and face whatever the consequences are, whether it’s humiliation or recognition. Or you can fold, and I’ll split all the tokens evenly among us. No winners, just back to where we were at the beginning of the year, all sharing one grade. It’s your choice, Annie.”

Annie’s head is filled with a swirling mixture of fear, shame, exhaustion, and something else in her that was very touched by what Abed said in addition to being hurt by it. She looks at her hand. It’s almost certainly a win. Abed knows that. Why else would he be saying all of this? She could walk out of here right now with what she _knows_ she deserves. She’s the reason the group even knows how to study in the first place! Without her, they’d all still be trying to retake Spanish 101!

But… without them…

Without them she’d be nothing more than she was in high school. A girl no one knew who tried to impress everyone and impressed no one. She’d be in every club at the school and never have a conversation with anyone that lasted longer than ten seconds. She’d be spending every second of every day trying to figure out what would happen the day after instead of enjoying herself here. 

Without Troy, her faith in humanity would have run out of steam years ago. Seeing him every day, someone who, once upon a time, had knowingly made her life an absolute hell, but now was the brightest spot in everyone’s day… it makes it so much easier to believe that the world is a good place. Troy, who didn’t even know how to hate another person, who could turn any situation into a good one with just a simple comment about how happy he was. 

Without Shirley, Annie wouldn’t know what a family was. Shirley, who never even had to question the fact that she’d love Annie unconditionally and make any sacrifice on her behalf. When Annie used to look back at her family, she’d always been able to twist it into a picture of happinesses. Now, she can’t do that anymore, not after seeing how much Shirley cares for her. And she doesn’t regret it in the slightest. 

Without Pierce, Annie wouldn’t know the wonderful ability of people to change and learn. Pierce, who’d never been really cared for, who’d gone so far as to determine that he _couldn’t_ be cared for… there’s been nothing quite like watching the way he’s grown as he’s been given a family. The way he grimaces and apologizes after accidentally saying something offensive to Annie. How he never leaves a study session until everyone else has gone because he doesn’t want to miss even a second of time with them. 

Without Britta, Annie wouldn’t know loyalty. Britta, who’d never hesitate to help her friends, even if she might accidentally mess it up. Britta, who would physically fight anyone who became an enemy of someone she loved and cared for. Annie had gone through most of her life without any friends at all, let alone one like Britta. 

Without Abed, Annie wouldn’t know fun. She wouldn’t know how interesting a simple room could become if you wanted it to. She wouldn’t be able to see the stories around her, or value the twists in her own life as more than just misfortune. And she’d never have seen October Sky, her new favorite movie, which would have been a tragedy in it’s own right. 

And without Jeff… as she tries to think of him, she’s hit with a wave of feeling. Without Jeff… she wouldn’t know a lot. She wouldn’t know how to use hand gestures smoothly during speeches. She wouldn’t know anything about the best-face washing techniques. She wouldn’t know how to enjoy herself instead of always looking a month or a decade ahead…

She wouldn’t know what a kiss is meant to be like. What it feels like to be cared for. What it feels like to… she stops herself as the feeling starts to overwhelm her. 

She knows what she has to do. 

A minute later, Annie is packing up her backpack with a small plastic bag containing a much smaller number of tokens than before. She looks around the room, hoping to end the night on a note of at least some reconciliation. Abed and Troy are busy playing operation on a sleeping Pierce. She gives them both a small wave. Troy smiles like nothing has even happened, and waves goodbye to her along with Abed. Britta has apparently already left. 

Annie looks around for Jeff, the person she most needs to talk to. But he’s gone. He must have left already as well… probably with Britta or something like that. She understands. She knows she must have hurt him. She sighs, hanging her head, and throws her backpack over her shoulder as she walks out of the study room.

She feels something bump into her from the right just as she walks out the door. She turns to see a smiling Jeff who’s just playfully run into her. 

“Hey,” he says, giving her a subdued yet genuine smile.

“Hey,” she says hesitantly.

“You know we still have that presentation tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah?” Annie questions, still wondering where this is going.

“Well… I’m not done with my section… and I know you’re not done with yours… so are you down to help me study?”

Annie’s eyes widen, and she steps back in surprise. She’s too pleased even to smile.

Jeff seems to have taken it the wrong way, “Uh, well I guess, okay yeah it’s pretty late, that’s fine-”

“No!” Annie yells much too loudly, and she hears Pierce snort awake in the room behind her to the audible dismay of Troy and Abed.

“Annie!” Jeff whispers aggressively, “I get it, okay. If you want to go home you could just say it!”

“No, no, no! That’s not what I meant! Yes of course I want to study with you! I just… I didn’t think you’d want to after all that.”

Jeff’s face softens into a smile again, and he shrugs, “Now that it’s out in the open that I don’t just study with you for the grade, there’s no point in pretending I wouldn’t just enjoy hanging out a bit after all that. Besides, there’s no one on earth who knows how to make an all-nighter more fun than Jeff Winger.”

Annie’s eyes widen again, and Jeff follows suit.

“Ah… not… that’s not… no that’s not what I meant. You get it. You… ugh. You know what I mean.” 

Annie giggles slightly and smiles at him, playfully bumping into him like he did earlier. “Well… let’s get studying then. Let’s go somewhere else in the library though… I am a bit tired of the study room for now.”

Jeff looks at her for a moment, and there’s something in his eyes that makes her want to just tell him everything that had gone through her head when she thought of him before. 

Instead, he offers her his arm. 

“Milady?”

Annie was already smiling, but if she could’ve smiled more she would’ve. 

“Milord.”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> There you go! I really hope you liked this! I just desperately wanted to write about the group playing poker and I thought it would be really fun :) Please leave feedback and kudos if you enjoyed it!
> 
> Also, I know this fic was really short and it's been really long since I've last written anything, so I promise I'll have something more extensive (and more Jeff+Annie focused) next up! I've got some fun ideas planned, and eventually, I'll write about the off-screen Jeff+Annie moments that took place in my last fic :) I love you all bunches and I promise I'll be back soon! Bye, Lates, See ya!


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